A Roof Over Your Head

Build 80,000 New Homes by 2032

A Nova Scotia Liberal government will do everything in its power to build more houses, because the best way to lower prices is by building more homes, including more deeply affordable homes. More housing being built will result in more affordable housing for Nova Scotians.

A Nova Scotia Liberal government will:

• Set a goal of building 80,000 new homes by 2032 to eliminate the housing shortfall, aiming for a rate of 11,000 new homes per year—enough to accommodate Nova Scotia’s growth,
• Establish increased minimum density standards across our province that take into account proximity to transportation and services,
• Ensure appropriate zoning to encourage density near our province’s universities so students have a place to live, and
• Eliminate any cases of restrictive covenants or exclusionary zoning that prevent housing from being built.

Re-Think Municipal Zoning Standards

The municipal funding formula will be reviewed to incentivize housing starts and red tape reduction. And when municipalities need investments into automatic permitting, necessary infrastructure, or other supports to get housing built, A Nova Scotia Liberal government will be a willing partner to get it done.

Further, we will establish province-wide minimum zoning standards, reduce red tape, eliminate restrictive covenants, and hasten development to build homes faster. The municipal funding formula will ensure adequate infrastructure to accommodate new housing, incorporating metrics like housing starts.

Spur Housing Innovation

A Nova Scotia Liberal government will work to accelerate the homebuilding innovation happening here in Nova Scotia. We’ll invest in new ways of building, like tilt-up construction, modular housing, mass timber, factory built housing, and other innovations that will enable our province to build more homes, reduce prices, and improve our province’s climate resilience.

Modernize Housing Legislation

The current government is playing favourites by choosing where new homes can go. We can’t afford that. We need a rules-based system across the province that will encourage new housing. A Nova Scotia Liberal government will modernize housing legislation to encourage broader and more innovative housing solutions.

Modernize the Condo Act

A Nova Scotia Liberal government will modernize the Condo Act to:

• Streamline construction of condo developments,
• Encourage more innovative housing solutions such as building rent communities that allow for a mix of ownership and rental units within the same developments, and
• Establish a fast track approval process for developments that build rental communities.

Fix the Broken Property Tax System

In order to protect Nova Scotians and incentivize new housing being built, a Nova Scotia Liberal government will work with experts to launch a full review of the property tax system to:

• Lower property taxes, especially in highly-taxed areas like the CBRM,
• Ensure our property tax system incentivizes housing being built, which currently isn’t always the case. Currently, if you add more housing to your property whether by building or renovating, your assessment goes up and so do your taxes. For the next five years we’ll reduce or eliminate tax increases on properties that build more housing. This will incentivize more housing where it’s needed in Nova Scotia, and help bring down housing prices.
• Remove arbitrary and unfair penalties from our property tax system, like the drastic increase in taxes Hammonds Plains residents experienced after they lost their houses to wildfires,
• Increase taxes on large vacant lots in our urban areas so that it is not profitable for developers to hold onto large, empty lots that are zoned for housing without building, and
• Eliminate the residential deed transfer tax (except for the 5% provincial out-of-province tax) to help downsizing seniors, growing families, and those looking to buy their first home by lowering costs and easing bottlenecks in the housing market.

Build More Non-Profit Housing

The province is currently a funding partner for 110 organisations that control over 3,000 housing units. We will build more units in order to more than double the existing stock, building 4,000 additional units by 2032, being sure to include wraparound supports for residents. We’ll do this by investing in non-profit organizations, and creating a trusted non-profit developer program that will fast track applications from organizations who have experience building housing. The non-profit sector has the capacity and the knowledge to manage deeply affordable housing properly, and the government can assist by building new units and acquiring underutilized housing.

Further, we recognize that housing insecurity disproportionality impacts marginalized communities. We would ensure that there is specific funding for seniors housing and housing for women fleeing domestic violence. We would work with African Nova Scotian groups and Mi’kmaq communities to ensure that all Nova Scotians have access to affordable housing. We will also ensure that more is done to support housing for Nova Scotians with disabilities, who are more likely to have inadequate housing or become homeless.

Eliminate the Tent Crisis

The lack of affordable housing options in Nova Scotia has created a crisis where many folks have been forced to live in tent encampments in urban areas. This has only been made worse by the lack of support for renters and the growing prevalence of renovictions under the current Houston government.

A Nova Scotia Liberal government will address the immediate encampment issue by procuring 500 mini-home shelters, saving lives. We estimate that we can do this at a cost of $10M because, instead of purchasing these homes from Pallett—an American company charging the current government $37,000 per unit—we will put out a tender to Nova Scotian companies who can build better shelters at lower costs.

We will also be transparent with communities about the locations of these emergency shelters and ensure that those housed there will have access to wraparound supports, transit, and community services.

Build and Support More Co-Ops

A Nova Scotia Liberal government will invest significantly in co-op housing to expand this affordable model across the province, with a goal of creating 2,000 new co-op units by 2032. We will achieve this goal by:

• Offering grants and low-cost loans to build new co-ops and expand existing ones,
• Opening up the Community Housing Acquisition Program to fund projects that add units to existing co-op projects or build new buildings, where currently the fund can only be used to purchase existing residential properties, and
• Invest $20M in additional grant funding streams to build new co-ops, expand existing co-ops, and fund co-op repairs.

Establish Better Rent Control to Protect Renters

Current rent protections are hurting those they’re supposed to help. Right now, Tim Houston can change the rent cap on a whim—and that’s bad for everyone. We will implement a fairer system where the cap is based on inflation, market conditions, and vacancy rates on a regional basis until adequate housing supply is reached and there is a healthy vacancy rate of 3%. This will provide much needed consistency, stability, and predictability to our rental market.

Establish a Provincial Rent Bank

Everyone experiences emergencies—and that shouldn’t cause you to worry about losing your home. A Nova Scotia Liberal government will establish a Rent Bank, a low-cost, high-value program that can provide quick turnaround, zero-interest loans to renters that find themselves stuck.

Close Fixed-Term Lease Loophole

We will end fixed-term lease abuse by ensuring that landlords cannot offer tenants fixed term leases longer than one year. Extensions beyond the fixed term would automatically transition the lease to month-to-month.

Reverse the Harsh Cuts to the Rental Supplement

The Rental Supplement provides support to low-income Nova Scotians who pay more than 40% of their income on rent. In 2023, Tim Houston’s government raised the cut-off from the 30% it was under the previous Liberal government to 50%, before lowering it back to 40% earlier this year. A Nova Scotia Liberal government will lower the cut-off back to 30%.

Establish a Residential Tenancies Enforcement Unit

Despite recommendations to establish a Residential Tenancies Enforcement Unit to deal with especially egregious and time-sensitive disputes—and support from both landlords and tenants to do so—Tim Houston’s government decided not to implement one, and tried to mislead Nova Scotians about it. A Nova Scotia Liberal government will implement a Residential Tenancies Enforcement Unit.

Increase Trades Opportunities For Women to Get Housing Built

As of 2022, less than 9% of trades apprentices in Nova Scotia were women. We will never overcome our province’s labour shortage and get more housing built if we are only training half of the available workforce. A Nova Scotia Liberal government will invest $10M to increase training for women at NSCC in trades directly related to housing, with a goal to double the number of women being trained over five years. We will:

• Increase the number of spots available for women to study a trade at NSCC,
• Invest to develop programming for all ages to show young women that careers in the trades are dynamic, high-paying jobs that help our communities, and
• Expand NSCC’s Women Unlimited program, which has already helped 1,000 women explore trades and technology education and find meaningful careers.

Develop a Comprehensive Seniors Housing Strategy

Sky-high rents and housing prices mean that many Nova Scotians can’t afford to move to housing that is right-sized for their lives.

We will work with seniors to develop specific housing plans to meet their needs. We’ll develop options like small walkable communities with homes for seniors or apartment buildings with specific wellness supports, and work to make sure seniors’ needs are being met in the housing market.

We know that many seniors want to stay in their homes because it’s where they’re most comfortable. To support them, we will invest $5M in programs to adapt existing housing to meet seniors’ needs as they age.

Release and Act On the Student Housing Strategy

Students are being left behind by the current government, and we will work to ensure students can access affordable housing where they need it.

A Nova Scotia Liberal government will release the Student Housing Strategy that Tim Houston has been sitting on. We’ll then work with universities and student advocacy groups to build more housing for students as part of our housing plan.

More Support for Women Fleeing Domestic Violence

We know that Nova Scotia is facing a domestic violence epidemic, and more needs to be done to ensure that those fleeing domestic violence have a safe place to stay. We’ll work with non-profit organizations to ensure they have the resources they need to continue to staff their shelters, especially considering the increased pressure of the cost of living crisis.

We’ll begin by directly replacing the approximately $4M that the federal government is no longer providing to women’s shelters in Nova Scotia. This is money that saves lives and provides housing and opportunities to women and children fleeing domestic violence. We have a moral obligation to restore that funding.